Another Christian Missionary Illegally Entered the Land of an Uncontacted Tribe

 

An American missionary who was arrested earlier this month is currently being questioned  by Brazilian authorities after he attempted to make contact with a  remote tribe in the region. It is illegal to make contact with the tribe  called Hi-Merima, because any interaction with the outside world is  extremely risky. 

Experts say that uncontacted tribes are at risk of  being completely wiped out by diseases to which they have no immunity. “Fundamentalist Christian American missionaries must be stopped  from this primitive urge to contact previously uncontacted tribes. It  may lead to the martyrdom they seek, but it always ends up killing  tribespeople,” said Stephen Corry, director of Survival International. 

Steve Campbell, a missionary from Greene Baptist Church in Maine,  passed through Hi-Merima last month where he was detained by FUNAI, the  Brazilian government’s Indigenous Affairs Department. Some reports  indicate that Campbell may be tried for genocide depending upon specific  details of the case.   According to a statement from Brazil’s Indigenous Affairs Department: 

“It’s a case of rights violation and exposure to risk of death to isolated  indigenous population. Even if direct contact has not occurred, the  probability of transmission of diseases to the isolated is high.”

Campbell was reportedly led through the territory by a local guide  whom he paid. Campbell has claimed he was in search of a different  tribe, only passing through Hi-Merima because there was no other way for  him to reach his destination. Campbell said that he was teaching the  nearby Jamamadi tribe how to use Global Positioning System (GPS)  technology and that the Jamamadi tribe’s territory is surrounded by the  Hi-Merima. Bruno Pereira, general coordinator at FUNAI, told Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo: 

“The Hi-Merima is one of a few dozen isolated  communities in Brazil that have had almost no contact with the outside  world and have limited immunity to outside diseases. As a result,  Campbell is accused of putting the ancient tribe in grave danger by  making contact with them after being led to their area by his GPS. He  reportedly entered the area by mistake while teaching Indians from the  neighboring Jamamadi tribe to use the device. If it is established in  the investigation that there was an interest in making contact, using  his relationship with other [tribespeople] to approach the isolated  [Hi-Merima tribe], he could be charged with the crime of genocide by  deliberately exposing the safety and life of the Merimas.“

The Hi-Merima people live along the Piranhas River, between the Juruá  and Purus Rivers, in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. There has not  been an estimation of the tribe’s population size since 1943, when it  was guessed that there were over 1,000 members.   This incident comes just two months after John Allen Chau,  another missionary, was killed by members of the Sentinelese tribe, an  uncontacted group living on an island in the Indian Ocean. 

The day  before Chau was thought to have died, the fishermen tasked with bringing  him to the island reported that he had arrow injuries and that his,  canoe used to travel from their boat to the island, had been broken. The  following day Chau did not return to the fishermen’s boat as planned  and the fishermen claim to have witnessed tribespeople burying his body  on the beach.